Board Games for Sunday School

Guest Author - Lynn Little

If you teach a Sunday School class or just want to change up some existing games, try personalizing the game to fit your needs. Teaching teenagers presents its own set of unique obstacles. They're at an age where it's cool not to act too interested in Sunday School. Introducing games into the classroom not only can be fun but educational. Games really seem to wake up the crowd and get them into the lessons without them realizing it.

We all have games that have lost pieces, we no longer play. At thrift stores or second hand shops you can pick up board games for a fraction of the retail price. Sometimes these games may be incomplete so check to make sure most of the pieces are there or at least the ones you plan to use.

Pictionary is an easy game to customize. All you need to do is think of your own concepts for the kids to draw. The rest of the pieces to the game like the notepads, pencils and timer can be used. If you are doing a lesson on Noah's Ark, you might use categories like flood, branch, giraffe, or rainbow. Pictionary is a great game to adapt for classroom use since it is so easy to make your own list of categories to suit your needs.

Luck of the Draw is another game I have slightly changed for classroom use. Again, since this game has subjects that the students draw, make up your own list. Since the game mechanics has students rolling a dice to choose which subject to draw, either list three items on a card or place three cards face down and number each card 1-3. Whichever number is rolled is the card students will draw.

Any board from a game and game pieces can be transformed into a trivia game. Compile your own trivia from past material covered, then have students roll a dice to move their piece onto the board. If the board has colored tiles, then you can divide trivia questions into color or by dice numbers, so if you were using a six-sided dice you would have six categories.

You don't even need a complete board game to play. Just figure out which type of game you want to play and go from there. Missing pieces can be substituted for pieces around the house. Little toys or poker chips can serve as place markers for many board games. Any board game and playing pieces can be used for a trivia game. A drawing game can use the supplied note pads and pencils.

Introducing a board game into a lesson can really help to make the material fun and interesting for your students. All it takes is a little thought and imagination to transform any board game into a suitable game for your class subject.